Happy Thanksgiving From McLaughlin & Nardi, LLC

As the holiday season creeps up on us, it’s good that we have the chance to reflect on what we are thankful for. Here at McLaughlin & Nardi we have much to be thankful for this year.

First, we are thankful for you who give us the opportunity to help people for a living. This is a gift which for which we are profoundly grateful.

Second, we are grateful for the people who help us do that. This includes all of the people who work here. There are those whom you see, such as our attorneys and paralegals, but there are many who you don’t see, including those who do the administrative, research and support work which allows the rest of us to be your advocates and counselors. They are more than just coworkers; they are family.

We are also grateful for our families. They support us in the work we do, and make us immeasurably better at it than we would be alone.

Third, we are grateful for the many other people who support us. The experts who provide us with support for our cases and transactions, the people who deliver our mail and packages, who keep our computers running, who clean our offices, who record testimony – all those people you never see or who seem like cogs in the wheel. We are grateful that they keep us going.

Fourth, we are grateful for the people we go up against. For all the lawyer jokes you may hear (and please e-mail us any good ones you know at info@esqnj.com), our adversaries and cocounsel and their staffs generally maintain a remarkable degree of professionalism and courtesy. There are exceptions of course, but this is our general experience.

Fifth, we are grateful for the Federal, State and Administrative courts in the Northeast, and especially in New Jersey. We have had the privilege of litigating in front of many hardworking, dedicated judges. The staffs are smart, hardworking, helpful and dedicated. Some people tell us about exceptions to this rule, but this is definitely our general experience.

Sixth, we are also grateful that we live in a system that respects the rule of law. As it is often said, we are a country of laws not of men, and this makes us great. While it has its critics, one of the reasons that the United States is a great is because of the rule of law and our legal system. Our State and Federal Constitutions establish core, bedrock principles which allow us to thrive. These include
• Equal justice before the law – everyone is treated equally in the eyes of the law.
• Due process – everyone gets the opportunity to have their fair day in court.
• The right to counsel – so that no one can be unfairly disadvantaged.
• The freedom of speech – the right to express ourselves on topics that matter, and to express dissent without fear of governmental retribution.
• The freedom of religion – the right to worship in accordance with our consciences.
• Access to a fair and impartial court system for the resolution of disputes as a bedrock constitutional principle.
• The right to petition government about our grievances and concerns.
• The constitutional guarantee that contracts which we freely enter into will be enforced – a bedrock principle without which no world class economy can function.